Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes had one aim this afternoon and that was to qualify on the front row for the World Superbike races at Jerez – and he did just that with third on the starting grid.
But he was not the fastest Kawasaki rider out on track – that accolade went to his younger team-mate, Loris Baz. The Frenchman was on fire and smashed the outright lap record this afternoon, in sweltering conditions.
Sykes knows there will be a few riders who will be out for the win tomorrow, and one of those who he will be keeping an eye on will no doubt be his colleague, Baz.
“I am happy enough because for me the target was the front row, to make sure we would get a good start tomorrow,” said Sykes.
“We have tried a lot of things this weekend and now we have left ourselves in a good position for race day. We know Jerez is a circuit where we have to work a lot compared to some other circuits but the times are very close.
“When you look at practice times many riders put in a soft tyre near the end of a session, so you can drop down the order because of that. In reality I think there are two or three riders who will be very strong on race day. We will see how the two long races go and I am happy to be sitting where I am on the front row.”
